23 May 2008
The English NHS should adopt a national programme to improve quality and build on the reforms of the past ten years, according to the Nuffield Trust.
A report by the health policy charity on the effect of Labour's health reforms since it came to power in 1997 says the NHS has improved but could do better.
The quest for quality says that heart disease prevention programmes have saved 22,000 lives a year, while 99.9% of patients with suspected cancer see a specialist within two weeks of referral by their GP. However, it is unclear whether the gains are commensurate with the investment in the NHS.
Death rates from heart disease and cancers are still higher than in France, Germany and the US, while the quality of other services varies.
One of the report's authors, Sheila Leatherman, a research professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said the recent reforms had to be fine-tuned to produce the necessary gains in quality.
'What is needed now is a refinement, not rejection, of the reforms through the development of a comprehensive national quality programme for the NHS in England,' she said.
Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon added: 'The underlying message that there is still much variation across England and that for some services quality still lags behind that seen in other countries is sobering.
'Also, apart from the use of central targets and investment to pay for more staff and equipment, it is not possible to tell which reforms have had the most impact.'
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